I'm currently looking at getting a plane from the local hobby shop. It is a hobbyzone piper cub rtf and there are people that can help me learn to fly available. I know that it already has a 480 size motor, I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good brushless motor/esc i could replace it with. Also, with stock electrics (using the included 1300mah battery), does anyone have a rough guess on the flight time i should get? I already have 3 other 1300mah 3s lipo packs that i use in my crawler that will work in this as well. Would 20 minutes per pack be a good ballpark estimate? Thanks for any help.

This all depends on several factors:

1. Weight of the plane

This is the total weight, including the motor, ESC, battery pack, fuselage, servos, receiver, everything.

2. Flying style

This means how you fly the plane. Electrics really require throttle management and discipline. If you push the throttle to full power and leave it there, you may get 5 minutes out of it, you may not. It's important for your instructor to teach you to fly and not using the throttle as an on-off switch.

You already described the battery pack you wish to use.

However, I suggest you take a look at the thread linked below, work your way to the bottom of the posts to the one about powering electrics, and work out the numbers. We could do it for you, but you can get the best benefit if you do it yourself.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10386274/tm.htm

CGr.

Why do you want to change the motor? The plane is appropriately powered already.

Unless he wants to go from brushed to brushless.. but even though, as you suggested, Jester, it is adequately powered.

Yeah, it comes with a 480 brushed motor and I want to put a brushless motor of equivalent power in.

Look for a ( drum roll please ! ) 480 sized BRUSHLESS motor.

It should fit well, and will give you more power than the brushed 480.

Yes, the 480 designation on both was purposely done so as to underscore motor equivalents.

Is that the 3 channel one? Rudder, elevator, throttle?

And you'll also need a new ESC....

IMHO this is not worth doing...

You are better off buying a new airframe and putting together your own configuration.

That will teach you a lot about electric configurations, and permit you to end up with a far better combo.



While it is possible to configure electric planes for long flight times, don't get too hung up on anything over 10 minutes, particularly on the small planes.

Longer flight times means bigger packs and higher wing loadings... with a larger electric ( or glider ) this is doable.... with a small electric why bother?

Just get another battery pack, fly, put one to charge, fly with another, rinse, lather and repeat.

True, 4 packs with a good charger can keep you flying all day. I have 6 1s packs for my T-28 UM, and can fly that thing for hours just swapping out batteries. Its just too bad I havent had any days where I could fly for hours with little wind. Is it me, or does this year seem a little breezier than in the past.

10 minutes is about all a beginner can maintain focus for. It doesn't sound like much, but when you're really focusing on what you're doing it can be a challenge.

I still see no point in changing out a perfectly functional power system. If the brushed motor was worn out, sure I'd upgrade to brushless. But there are Super Cubs flying all over the country just fine using the stock power system.

Ok, after hearing from you guys and talking to the people at the hobby shop I'm going to just leave the motor alone. I ended up getting the plane yesterday and it is all assembled and ready to go. I'm just waiting for the guy to give me a call so we can get together and have him teach me how to fly it. Does anyone see any problem with swapping the factory connector to a deans ultra? I have a few lying around and if I did this I would have 4 batteries available instead of one. The other 3 I use in my my crawler and they just happen to be the same size as the one the plane came with, just a much higher C rating

No problem changing the battery connector. Are your other batteries the same weight as the stock one? A change there will shift your CG, which will change the elevator trim and many of the flight characteristics.

You can do as I did and make a harness. Both my planes are EC3 connectors, so I made an EC3 to Deans harness, which gives me a little more cable to plug the battery in with.